1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for checking the correct processing of bank notes in automatic bank note sorters for sorting certain amounts of money into different categories according to given criteria, whereby partial amounts are destroyed if necessary, and a log is prepared, after a given amount of money has been processed or after a certain unit of time, to record information about the processed bank notes, among other things.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Machines have been used for sorting bank notes for some time that single-out, automatically or manually, supplied bank notes, guide them successively through a sensor system, and sort them into different categories according to given criteria depending on the task at hand and the sensor result.
Such a machine is known for example from German patent no. 27 60 269. An essential task of these known sorting machines is to sort bank notes flowing back from circulation into those fit for further circulation and those that are unfit. Bank notes are sorted into a third category if they are suspected to be counterfeits or are unidentifiable or unsortable for other reasons. The notes identified for unfit for further circulation must be reliably destroyed, which can be done, for example, by passing the notes through a shredder module integrated in the sorting machine, that cuts each note into such small shreds that no notes can be restored therefrom.
Money processing on the level of the sorting machine can be roughly divided into three steps. The operator of the machine is given a certain money volume at the beginning of his shift, which he acknowledges receiving. The received amount of money is supplied to the machine and sorted into the stated categories, for example. At the end of his shift the operator turns over the sorted amounts of money, together with a printout logging all relevant operations, to an institution that continues the money processing.
As described in detail in German "offenlegungsschrift" no. 27 60 269, the sorting machine is provided with a printing means for printing out a so-called shift log, among other things. This log records, along with other data, the sums of the bank notes deposited in the intended categories. The sum of all partial amounts in the categories must correspond to the money volume supplied to the machine and acknowledged by the operator. The log data fundamentally permits a check of the individual amounts of money by a recount, for example, so that no bank note can disappear undetected. However, this simple form of check is no longer possible in the case of destroyed notes, so that particularly these notes require a different form of security check to ensure against possible manipulation.